Dreamcast-Talk.com

I was searching for my collection of Homebrew Dreamcast cds tonight and eventually found them in an old leather case next to the wall behind a wardrobe. Ok, I'm not the tidiest or most organised person in the world........

I opened the case to find about thirty or so discs in, well they were in a fairly pitiful state. Around 75% of the discs had like this blue/green staining all over them which didn't bode well and, after testing them, I realised they wouldn't load

These discs were burned between 1999 & 2006. Is this disc rot ? And, if not, what the hell has happened ?

The 'bad' discs were unbranded so I'm thinking cheap discs=shit quality ?

BTW, if anyone's interested in what brand the 'ok' discs are, then note that they were Verbatim cd-r and Fuji cd-r Pro. Just a coincidence or have these discs got any special anti-ageing qualities ?

Whatever, if you're starting out with a homebrew collection or just burning a few retail games then it might pay to be choosy about what discs you use.

Disc rot only occurs on pressed discs. This is just CD-Rs being CD-Rs. They aren't made to last forever.

I got dome hella old Trance and Breakbeats cdr's that are about from 98-03, had them all in a shoebox, and they were looking the same way. However, Texas is a dry climate, so they became kinda flaky, not really like molding or bleeding the colors, not that they are really mold, but that's the only thing I can describe it to but I think I know what you mean.

Comrade Snarky wrote:Disc rot only occurs on pressed discs. This is just CD-Rs being CD-Rs. They aren't made to last forever.

Oh, right. I didn't know that !

It's a bit worrying coz I have put a lot of stuff on dvd-r and cd-r in the last six months. Shit, I'll have to think of another way of archiving files from now on.

I can watch my grandad's 8mm movies from forty years ago, my mother's wedding day video and listen to my cassette collection from twenty years ago but I won't be able to view my photo discs etc in a few years time

I suppose I could dump everything onto memory card/stick ? I really don't know of anything else to do other than trusting my harddrives to never fuck up.

Anthony817 wrote:I got dome hella old Trance and Breakbeats cdr's that are about from 98-03, had them all in a shoebox, and they were looking the same way. However, Texas is a dry climate, so they became kinda flaky, not really like molding or bleeding the colors, not that they are really mold, but that's the only thing I can describe it to but I think I know what you mean.

Mmm, yeah that does sound similar. It's a damn pain in the arse !

Neohound wrote:

Comrade Snarky wrote:Disc rot only occurs on pressed discs. This is just CD-Rs being CD-Rs. They aren't made to last forever.

Oh, right. I didn't know that !

It's a bit worrying coz I have put a lot of stuff on dvd-r and cd-r in the last six months. Shit, I'll have to think of another way of archiving files from now on.

I can watch my grandad's 8mm movies from forty years ago, my mother's wedding day video and listen to my cassette collection from twenty years ago but I won't be able to view my photo discs etc in a few years time

I suppose I could dump everything onto memory card/stick ? I really don't know of anything else to do other than trusting my harddrives to never fuck up.

That's the problem with digital media, and a reason I have a raging hatred for HD video. Those old 8mm films' resolution is only slightly worse than the 2k HD cameras that are used for most modern movie productions.

So far the only brand/s i will use for burning my homebrew on is the memorex and maxell brands (i prefer memorex over maxell if i had to choose mainly because i haven't had any issues from memorex), and i always put the disk back into a jewel case or the case the blank CDs came in. most of my games that i have burnt i made back in 2005 - 2006. they have been through hell, they have sit in a non climate controlled storage for around two years, they are in the same state now as they was when i first burned them.

I am getting to the point that i want the SD card reader mod for my DC because its eye wont last forever (the CD spindle motor has already been replaced once)

Ok, I'll have a look at some Maxell/Memorex discs. A musician friend of mine suggested getting Verbatim Super Azo Crystal DataLifePlus (what a mouthful ! lol). Apparently they last up to 100 years !!

Obviously, whatever I go for is going to be more expensive than my present unbranded ones but hopefully it will be worth it.

Neohound wrote:Ok, I'll have a look at some Maxell/Memorex discs. A musician friend of mine suggested getting Verbatim Super Azo Crystal DataLifePlus (what a mouthful ! lol). Apparently they last up to 100 years !!

Obviously, whatever I go for is going to be more expensive than my present unbranded ones but hopefully it will be worth it.

Yeah i heard great things about Verbatim disks, I have never had a chance to use them to voice my opinion with them seeing that i haven't had any issues with Memorex or Maxell.

A memory stick/ hard drive will last a long time. Its like film, they perserve old movies by putting them onto film and placing them into a cooled freezer basement like thing.

my cd's are TDK